Synod in York

The General Synod will be in session from Friday 6th - Tuesday 10th July 2007, at the University of York's campus in Heslington.

There are two important debates which will allow contributions on the proposals for women bishops in the Church of England and dealing with liberalism throughout the Anglican Communion.

Senior Church Appointments
Synod will consider the report of the review group established by the Archbishops’ Council in response to the Synod’s resolution in February 2005, to consider the law and practice regarding the appointment of suffragan bishops, deans, archdeacons and residentiary canons.

Anglican Communion Covenant
All provinces of the Anglican Communion have been invited to express their views on a possible Anglican Covenant, aimed at encouraging common understanding between the provinces of the Communion. Synod will therefore be invited to affirm its willingness to engage with the process for producing a covenant. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have invited the Archbishop of the West Indies (the Most Reverend Drexel Gomez), the Chair of the Covenant Design Group, to address the Synod before the debate is introduced by a member of the House of Bishops.

Catholics and Conservatives

The following report by Jonathan Petre in today's Telegraph is relevant:

Church of England coalition to tackle liberals

Senior Church of England conservatives are plotting a new coalition to mount their biggest offensive yet against their liberal opponents over issues such as gay priests.

The scheme emerged after the consecration of Gene Robinson.

According to insiders, they are planning talks at this week's General Synod aimed at uniting a broad spectrum of evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics to act together during crucial debates.
Supporters of the new movement believe that it could gain the backing of up to half of the Synod, the Church''s "parliament", frustrating the efforts of liberals to promote their agenda. Its leaders are expected to include prominent clergy and lay people within the Synod and the Archbishops' Council, the Church's managing body.

Although it will also have the support of a handful of sympathetic bishops, it will unsettle the majority as it is certain to challenge their leadership. There are already a number of smaller groups within the Synod but conservatives believe that this "seismic shift" will boost their power significantly.

One Synod member said that many conservatives were dismayed by the failure of the bishops to enforce their own guidelines against clergy who are openly in active gay relationships, in defiance of Church policy. "The bishops are totally pathetic. They are abject cowards. The Archbishop of Canterbury does nothing but sit on the fence," she said.

But liberals dismissed the latest initiative, predicting that the new coalition would fall apart because of internal squabbling.

The move reflects deepening divisions in the Church, which is being torn apart by the acrimonious dispute over homosexuality.

Splits will surface most clearly when the Synod, which begins a five-day meeting in York today, debates whether the worldwide Anglican Church should be bound by a new covenant, aimed at preventing liberals acting unilaterally.

The scheme emerged in the aftermath of the consecration of the American Gene Robinson as the first openly gay Anglican bishop in 2003, and it has been strongly supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

He has appointed an international group to draw up a draft version that should be finalised at next year's Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering in Canterbury of almost all the bishops of the worldwide Church which has 70 million followers.

It will set out broad parameters of acceptable doctrine, and suggests that those who stray outside will be effectively expelling themselves from the worldwide "Communion".
Although some see the covenant as academic because the Church is likely to have split irrevocably before it can be introduced, the matter will be debated by the Synod on Sunday.

Several conservative Archbishops have already threatened to boycott the Lambeth Conference.

The liberals, including the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev John Saxbee, are strongly opposed to the covenant because it would curb the autonomy of the provinces, the 38 self-governing Churches that make up the worldwide Anglican "Communion".

But supporters, including most conservatives, say that Anglicanism will implode if liberals are allowed to continue defying official policy by introducing "un-Biblical" innovations such as officially sanctioned same-sex blessings.